October 4th, Monday, we drove back to Zion from Hurricane. It was early morning, just after sunrise, and the sun was bright in our eyes.
Parking, even at this early hour, was difficult to find in the visitor center. We had to park in front of the visitor center.
The agenda today was to hike the Narrows. It’s the course of the Virgin river, a tributary of the Colorado river, running through the bottom of the canyon. At some places the walls of the canyon are just 20 feet apart.
We rented the waterproof shoes and the hiking poles and took the shuttle to the Riverside walk which took us to the start of the Narrows. The water level at the beginning is till the ankles but gradually reaches the knees.
It’s difficult to walk in the water. The stones are slippery and one has to be very careful not to fall.
The mistakes I made were: I had my crossbody bag with me, so if I fell, everything inside including my phone would be gone. I also was being careful not to get my pants wet, I should have worn some shorts or leggings and changed them later.
But even then, I was able to go in a quarter of a mile, and my daughter went in further. We both liked the experience and agreed we would come back better prepared to do the 8 mile hike. Though I am still a bit leery of walking too far on those slippery rocks.
We had an early lunch at a Thai place and started our drive to the next park: Bryce Canyon National Park.
The drive started on Hwy 9, this is considered a scenic drive through an old historic tunnel. It was beautiful-of what I could see. Because I was driving on a series of switchbacks, climbing out of the canyon, on the side of a cliff, following a bunch of cars, with a maximum speed limit of 20mph. No way was I going to take my eyes off the car in front of me to admire the view.
But this portion is just a few miles long. Later on the drive becomes more even and its a gradual climb to the 7000 ft of the Bryce Canyon.
I get anxious, apprehensive, scared when I think of going up or coming down a hill. Even though I commute everyday from 250 ft to 1500 ft for work. So this trip I told myself that I am not going from 0 to 7000 ft. but from 4500 to 7000 ft, which is not much of a difference. What can I say, it seemed to work.
We crossed the Red Canyon on the way to Bryce Canyon. It’s on Hwy 12 which is considered one of the most scenic highways in America. We saw some beautiful red rock formations and a couple of cute rock tunnels which my cousin recognized as being used in the movie ‘Cars’
We reached Bryce Canyon, quickly had lunch at the local diner, checked in and went straight to Sunset Point.
Bryce Canyon Is known for its ‘hoodoos’. The legend related to it is sad, ‘these are Legend people turned to stone by Coyote as a punishment for bad deeds.’
But the effect is beautiful, orange colored tall rock monuments all standing in a row. I could make out ‘Thor’s hammer.’ It was a bit cloudy and the drizzle made the atmosphere feel fresh and clean.
We walked down the canyon and completed the Navajo loop. We were all set to hike the Queen’s garden loop but somebody cautioned us that sunset would happen in a couple of hours and the base of the canyon starts getting darker before that. We gave up that idea but then walked along the Rim of the canyon.
I loved this tree, look at the way the roots are clinging to the soil, scrappy!
The canyon is deep, the hike into it, and out, involves many switchbacks and the path is covered with a grainy sand. So the going is slow. But it is doable. I took my time on the hike, stopping frequently to admire the surroundings, and yes, to catch my breath too.
At sunset we drove slowly back to the hotel. On the way we saw a family of deer, a couple of them with the huge antlers.
The next morning, October 5, Tuesday, we woke up early to see the sunrise, but it was cloudy again and so we didn’t get a good picture. But standing at the edge of the canyon, in the cool breeze, surrounded by a calm silence, was wonderful. We stayed there for about an hour and then after breakfast, set off to the next destination.
Capitol Reef National Park is not talked about much. But this was the one I loved the most.
From Bryce Canyon NP to Capitol Reef NP goes the famous, most scenic Hwy 12. I had been in two minds to go via this route, mainly because in all the travel forums people talked about the one lane roads with steep cliffs on either side. No amount of trying to understand that, if big trucks and RVs could make it across, then my car could definitely do it, managed to make me want to do it. On the other hand, I did not want to miss out on the experience either.
The decision however, was taken off my hands. It started raining as we left Bryce Canyon and I did not want to drive on that highway in even a bit of rain. So we took the alternate route via Johns Valley road/Hwy 62/Hwy 24.
This route was scenic too. We encountered huge cattle who thought we were trespassing on their roads.
We saw trees showing the golden yellow and orange of fall colors. We passed through small towns.
The biggest town was Koosharem, where we took a break at the Koosharem cafe, talked to the beautiful proprietress, got some nice hot chocolate, and smiled at the Curious George soft toy tied to the back of a huge Harley Davidson mobike.
We reached Capitol Reef NP and it seemed as if it had been raining there all morning. The drive into the park is approximately 10 miles of sheer beauty. The soil color had changed from a light orange to dark red due to the rain and as the red soil ran into the water, it turned it red. A beautiful vermillion red.
We drove to the Gifford homestead in Fruita valley and got a yummy apple pie. The Gifford house was established in the early 1900s, the original house still stands and I can’t believe how small everything was. The rooms were tiny, but very functional.
We then did the hike to Hickman Bridge. This might be one of my favorite hikes of the trip. Part of it was along the Fremont river, and the sound of the river, along with the light rain, the beauty of the trees and the rocks, everything came together to make it a good experience.
After the hike we also stopped to see some petroglyphs. Kudos to the person who saw them and preserved them, to me they were very light and I would have missed them.
We then drove via Hwy 24/I-70E/US-191 S to Moab. This portion of Hwy24 is covered with hills of different colors. We saw combinations of red on top and white on bottom and vice versa. We saw black, purple, yellow, dark gray, all different colored hills.
We reached Moab sometime in the evening. Thankfully it wasn’t raining much there. We had our dinner and prepared for the next day.
It was nice to be able to stay in one place for a couple of days. We had been driving at least 3-4 hours almost everyday and were ready for a break.